<p>We all know it's a great school, but it's also hard to get in. What other schools did you apply to (or would have applied to) that closely match the best attributes of U Chicago? Any similar schools would be appreciated, but I'm mostly looking for safeties/matches.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about safeties or matches, but I do know schools that have close philosophies and similarities. Some schools include:</p>
<p>Reed College
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
Williams College
Amherst College
Brown University</p>
<p>Some schools that are completely completely different from UChicago are:</p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania
Cornell University
Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>Please feel free to weigh in on this topic.</p>
<p>^100% agree with Brown, Columbia, and Reed. </p>
<p>Didn’t apply to Columbia or Reed tho.</p>
<p>If you’re really looking for safeties, you might want to take a close look at state schools with “honors programs”.</p>
<p>In addition to Reed as a possible match, try Carleton, Grinnell, Oberlin and Swarthmore which share some similarities.</p>
<p>St John’s, New College of Florida could be “safeties.”</p>
<p>weird that people seem to agree that Uchicago and Brown are similar…I think of them as very different re: educational philosophy</p>
<p>I’d also say that New College of Florida and Brown are two schools I applied to that are similar - Brown, obviously, being very hard to get into, but New College is a great school and has a high acceptance rate. Research it and see if you like it. It’s also pretty affordable, which is a big plus.</p>
<p>Claymangs - Chicago and Brown students, even though the curriculums at the two schools are diametrically opposed, tend to share a love of “learning for learning’s sake.” The students at both schools seem pretty intellectually curious, and tend to take classes simply because of their academic interest, and not because of overt pre-professional goals.</p>
<p>Outside of that, though, the schools are very, very different in terms of vibe and atmosphere. Brown is definitely a more laidback, hang-loose sort of atmosphere, and Chicago tends to be a bit more serious and grittier.</p>
<p>I agree with all the talk about Swarthmore, Reed, Oberlin, etc. A few schools not mentioned yet, though:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>University of Rochester. I think this would be a good “safety.” Rochester goes the Brown U route and has very few core requirements, but, because of this, students tend to enjoy what they’re learning and exhibit a good deal of intellectual curiosity. Rochester features a mid-sized college smack dab in the middle of a pretty darn good research university. Rochester is a somewhat underrated gem, in my opinion. </p></li>
<li><p>For the LAC experience, Davidson. Again, not as well known, but a great school, and easier to get into in comparison to a Swarthmore or Amherst. From what I’ve heard, students approach academics very, very seriously at Davidson, and the school has a good rigorous bent to it. School is also somewhat near a significant metropolitan area (Charlotte).</p></li>
<li><p>Rice University: Again, near a major metropolitan area, great research university, and from what I’ve head, has an absolutely outstanding rep for student life. It might differ from Chicago in this last respect, but it’s also known for boasting a close-knit, decidedly academic environment. Admissions is very competitive, but I think it’s perhaps a shade below the bar set at places like Chicago or Penn or Northwestern. Again, it’s a bit off the beaten path, and probably doesn’t get as much of a look as it should by many top students.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>For my D many moons ago, CMU, Rochester, McGill and a State U were all safeties. </p>
<p>State U can be funny, though: At one, she won a full four year free ride competitively (invited and flew in for a day of exams and interviews, followed up by another round of phone interviews when she was selected as a semifinalist - so it was far from automatic) yet she was not automatically honors college eligible nor did she get a lesser value scholarship that was automatic to NM finalists (which she was not because NMF cutoff for MA her year was the highest in the nation…).</p>
<p>Questions like the OP’s are tough to answer, though, because kids like chicago for many different reasons, so a matching safety will vary depending on what the kid is looking for.</p>
<p>My kids wanted big-city, big-university. As safeties, they considered BU (honors college, chance of merit scholarship), Pitt (honors college, chance of merit scholarship), Toronto, Michigan, Reed. The humanities-oriented one would have thought hard about Johns Hopkins, too. It’s a great school for literature and creative writing, and I think somewhat easier to get into for students with that bent than Chicago (as opposed to pre-meds, who apply to Hopkins in droves). They might also have thought about USC, Rice, and Emory, but they were really not interested in them geographically.</p>
<p>I think there are easy comparisons to Rochester, McGill, Notre Dame’s Great Booksy program, NYU Gallatin, etc. but I would hardly consider these safeties for students.</p>
<p>I would look at honors programs of public universities and perhaps some smaller schools that are less well-known outside of the region but have a Great Booksy core (Whitman College, for example). I would also look at Sarah Lawrence College for liberal arts college with access to a big city, and though I haven’t researched schools like Eugene Lang College, one might want to look for schools that do liberal arts in a big city. (Simmons College, though it’s a womens’ college, might also make a good Chicago safety).</p>
<p>In Donald Asher’s book, “Cool Colleges: For the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different,” Chicago is the one of a few, if only, elite non-LAC he praises (take that, Ivies! ;-)). He speaks very highly of the Robert E. Cook honors college at Indiana University Pennsylvania, which, after looking at their website, seems to have a Chicago bent to it.</p>
<p>Donald Asher’s book, “Cool Colleges: For the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different”
MAN, I remember that book! It was the first college guide I picked up when starting to research colleges for my son, because the title perfectly described him!. Reed was also mentioned in that book, if memory serves[ it’s been at least 10 years]</p>
<p>^?? McGill (and Toronto) are almost entirely numbers-driven in their admissions, so that a modicum of research will tell you whether they are safeties or out of reach. They are safeties for lots of Chicago applicants. You won’t likely get financial aid, but you will definitely get a tuition price that is lower than that of most equivalent U.S. institutions (taking exchange rate into account). </p>
<p>Rochester and NYU aren’t really “safeties”, but I think they are both more likely to accept your average Chicago applicant than Chicago is. Gallatin is a strange call for Chicago-equivalence. It’s NYU’s roll-your-own college. Unalove probably knows more people there than my family does, but we haven’t been impressed by the intellectual standards and rigor of Gallatin programs (and I’m not even taking the Olson Twins into account in making that judgment). I like NYU, but I would choose its Arts & Sciences college over Gallatin.</p>
<p>Indiana University of Pennsylvania – there’s a California University of Pennsylvania, too, by the way – has a great-looking honors program on paper, but it’s in the middle of nowhere, and the honors-program types around here would rather go to Pitt. (They tend to like Pitt more than Schreyer, although I think suburban kids tend to reverse those preferences.)</p>
<p>I have a great list of backups.</p>
<p>Glad to see the schools being discussed here are some of the same ones on S2’s list (in addition to Chicago!). Makes me feel that he’s done a good job of assessing fit and programs, as well as what may be more likely admits.</p>
<p>Oh, for a sibling discount…</p>
<p>I am a big fan of the University of Pittsburgh honors college as a UChicago safety. They give great scholarships with the possibility of applying to the Chancellor’s Scholarship- free room and board plus stipend for travel abroad- which I know many a UChicago prospective has been swayed by. When I applied to both Pitt and Chicago back in the day, I found Pitt’s honors college very welcoming, and a good community of smart kids who were challenging themselves academically and having a good time together doing so. I remember during my prospie visit one of the honors dorms was having a spelling bee as a regularly scheduled activity. Obviously I chose Chicago, but I think Pitt is a great choice, especially if finances are a consideration.</p>
<p>my back up’s-in state schools!
woo</p>
<p>One quick note about Pitt - I think the city of Pittsburgh is a vastly underrated town. Lots of museums, sports offerings, very livable, etc. It’d be a great choice for a college student, and there are a lot of colleges in the area (Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne, etc.)</p>